Remember these shoes? Well I took them back to Shoe Carnival when we returned from our trip and decided to wait on getting replacements until I could go to a fancy walk/run store that friends and family have had success with to get a personal fitting and “diagnosis” for what kind of sneaker I need. That didn’t work out due to the store being staffed that day by the current star of the high school track team (I’m guessing) whose custom fitting services consisted of giving me a random pair of Asics to try on and then asking: “do they feel okay?”. I thought I’d go back on another day or to a different location but more and more time went by and one thing lead to another and before I knew it I was back at Shoe Carnival today purchasing the original shoes again. That rip was a fluke, I’m sure. Shoe lightning won’t strike twice, will it?

So the mondo-zucchini met his end today by way of a recipe from the Mayo Clinic. I made zucchini bread and, in a wave of responsibility, rejected Paula Deen’s scrumptious-looking recipe for the Mayo Clinic’s whole wheat offering. It doesn’t tase bad, just really, really boring. And we decided it looks like a vegetarian “meat” loaf. Its better with cream cheese frosting spread on top, and I think it could have used at least twice the cinnamon called for. No sweat though. I have a family reunion this weekend where I”m sure it will be gobbled up in no time, bland or not.

Kara and Randy are trying to strong-arm me into their current fad – eating more raw fruits and vegetables. Something about being healthy and living longer and blah blah blah. So I’m trying to jump on the bandwagon – its just proving to be a really bumpy bandwagon ride with unpleasant scenery. I enjoy a small piece of fruit now and then, but I have to make myself eat raw veggies….or any veggies at all for that matter.

I bought a bunch of fruit at the grocery store yesterday and tried to branch out a little, with the purchase of a mango. I’m sure I’ve had mango before mixed into things, but I couldn’t pick out the flavor in a taste line-up before today and I’ve never personally bought or cut one up. It was a messy process. My first bite seemed promising. But the more I ate the less I liked it and now the thought of it makes my nose turn up a little. I dropped a piece on the floor, where it was categorically rejected by Zipper.

This was my breakfast today – strawberry slices, pineapple chunks, and an entire peach. It was fairly tasty and it took a long time to eat, which is good – less time to wait until lunch. But by the time I polished it off I started noticing a slight burning in the back of my mouth – where the roof of my mouth meets my throat. The burning later turned into a gigantic, swollen, painful bump. I’m pretty sure it was caused by too much acidic pineapple. I was injured by fruit.

At the office today a coworker brought Kara and me zucchinis from her garden. MONDO-ZUCCHINI. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. And Kara’s was even bigger. I’ll have to make plans for this guy.

So we worked on the steps again and we got them all built! But….they’re not installed. They weigh approximately 7,413 pounds and we can’t lift them into place ourselves. Also, we’ve decided to pour a concrete pad for the steps to rest on rather than relying on the concrete deck blocks we’d planned to use. So it looks like we’ll be another week without functioning steps. But we’re growing ever closer to a finished, functioning deck…..someday…